We at Fantasy Magazine we saddened by yesterday’s news that genre author Michael Crichton died after a long battle with cancer. He was a man of many talents — not only an author, but a director, producer, and medical doctor. Many of his books were about scientists trying to make a better world but accidentally destroying it.
He was sometimes accused of being anti-science, most recently due to the ideas he wrote into his 2004 novel State of Fear, which challenged claims of the dangers of global warming. Though some accused him of fostering distrust of scientists with his popular fiction, my exposure to his ideas made me think that science can do awesome things. Sure, if you recreate dinosaurs from amberized DNA they might eat you. But if you can keep that from happening: dinosaur! That’s completely awesome.
His top five books are: Jurassic Park (my favorite), The Lost World, The Andromeda Strain, A Case of Need, and State of Fear. Of the movie adaptations, my favorites are Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain (1971). What are your favorite Michael Crichton books and movies?
1 • Cat C. said:
November 6th, 2008 at 9:13 pm, permalink
I remember my parents took us to see Jurassic Park opening night. I was 9 and my brother was 7 and he had screaming nightmares for a week after we saw it. I think it was the raptors in the kitchen scene :0) (He’s gonna kill me for writing this). Anyway I read the book when I was twelve and I got really interested in chaos theory and fractals and all that. The book is fantastic and the movie rokked too. Love it!
2 • HW said:
November 7th, 2008 at 2:13 am, permalink
Good Post. I loved Andromeda Strain (the old one). And of course the first Jurassic Park is a classic. Of Crichton’s books I have only read Sphere. Good book but not so great movie. Still it must have been a hard book to adapt.
Most good Scifi writers show the dangers of science without morals. So to me he was doing his job.
3 • Samuel Tinianow said:
November 7th, 2008 at 2:57 am, permalink
Sure, if you recreate dinosaurs from amberized DNA they might eat you.
Of course, that part of the plot depends on whether a dinosaur would be even remotely interested in eating a human. Theoretically, it seems like velociraptors (and I’m pretty sure he wanted dinonychus or utahraptor; velociraptor was about 3 feet tall) would be far more likely to go after a herd of dinosaurs grazing somewhere than a couple kids in a building. And I think it’s doubtful whether something as small as a human would even register with a T-Rex, as food or as a territorial threat. It seems like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park exist for the sole purpose of maliciously exterminating humans, more like the aliens in Aliens than animals that fit into a diverse ecosystem.
So, yeah, if you manage to genetically engineer a dinosaur… cool.